Pro-life stand drew rare criticism

Tireless defender of life is called to God

Interim special 

The pro-life movement has lost one of its greatest allies with the death of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. The foundress of the Missionaries of Charity, a 4,000-member order of Roman Catholic nuns, died of heart failure September 5 at her convent in Calcutta. She was 87. 

Mother Teresa attained international celebrity in 1979 when she received the Nobel Peace Prize for her humanitarian work with the poor, most notably in the slums of Calcutta.  But her pronouncements against abortion and birth control also garnered criticism, mainly in North American and European countries. "She was a saint. She revealed the face of God," says Archbishop Adam Exner of Vancouver, who twice met with Mother Teresa. "Obviously, there were a lot of people in the world who didn't agree with her pro-life statements, but they couldn't but admire the woman for what she did," he told The Interim. "What was so completely admirable about Mother Teresa was that she not only spoke about abortion, but she did something about it," Exner added. 

Wide influence 

Mother Teresa's influence also extended to young people. Teresa Ramnarine, 17, a Grade 12 student at Michael Power High School in Toronto, met Mother Teresa on a school trip to Calcutta in 1996.  She said Mother Teresa inspired a greater respect for all life by emphasizing spiritual values over the material. "She helped me to realize that poverty doesn't necessarily apply to material comforts," Ramnarine said. "Many of the people she ministered to on the streets don't see themselves as disadvantaged. That kind of thinking is unheard of in North American society." Ramnarine, who is planning to enter medical school, hopes to combine some form of missionary work with her future career as a doctor. 

Mother Teresa's words over the years continually bolstered the pro-life community. "We have sent the word to all the clinics and hospitals: do not destroy the child, we will take the child," she once said. And her order did take in many unwanted infants in Calcutta, placing them for adoption with couples in Europe and North America. "We are, in our congregation, fighting abortion by adoption," Mother Teresa said at a massive pro-life rally in Ottawa on Parliament Hill in 1988. The executive director of Christians for Life had invited her to come to Canada to speak at the rally. At the time, Mother Teresa toured Campaign Life Coalition's Ottawa office, saying she felt "quite comfortable" amid the clutter. 

At the United Nations conference on women in 1995, she again spoke out on this theme, saying that "abortion is the biggest destroyer of peace in the actual world and those who proclaim the equality of men and women are for abortion." She spoke eloquently about motherhood at the conference: "Motherhood is God's gift to a woman. How grateful should we be for this tremendous gift which gives such a great joy to the whole world. We can however destroy the gift of motherhood through the evil of abortion." 

Her ideological views on abortion and birth control came under attack in a British documentary entitled Hell's Angel, followed by the publication of British journalist Christopher Hitchens' book, The Missionary Position: The Ideology of Mother Teresa. Both presented an irreverent and cynical view of Mother Teresa and her ideology.  This was in sharp contrast to the almost loving treatment she received in 1971 in British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge's book, Something Beautiful for God. 

Mother Teresa was born in 1910 as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje, which was then Albanian territory. In her adolescence, she joined the Loretto Sisters of Ireland, going to India for her novitiate. Mother Teresa become a teacher at the Loretto convent high school for girls in Calcutta. There she remained, until receiving her call to serve "the poorest of the poor." In 1952, her newly founded order opened Nirmal Hriday, Home for the Dying Destitutes, in Calcutta. The sisters brought the sick and dying to the house to die in dignity.  The following year, the Missionaries of Charity opened an orphanage. In 1958, Mother Teresa started a centre for lepers near Calcutta.  Already fluent in Bengali, the language of West Bengal, Mother Teresa become an Indian citizen, following the country's independence from British rule. 

Her order now has 4,000 sisters worldwide, in Canada, the United States and 118 other countries. In Toronto, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity provide outreach to ex-mental health patients. She once said that the loneliness of people in North America is the greatest poverty of all. 

Failing health 

Mother Teresa's health had been failing for several years. In 1983, she suffered a heart attack while visiting Pope John Paul II in Rome. After another heart attack in 1989, she wore a pacemaker.  Her health problems did not deter her from the gruelling schedule she followed as leader of her order. As her state funeral in Calcutta demonstrated, Mother Teresa commanded the attention of world leaders. In her lifetime, she met with several heads of state.  She is succeeded by Sister Nirmala Joshi, a 63-year-old convert, who has the daunting task of continuing Mother Teresa's legacy. 

"I'm tempted to say her death is a great loss for the pro-life movement," says Jim Hughes, national president of Campaign Life Coalition. "But her powerful influence on behalf of preborn babies will only increase now that she's in heaven."   

(Nipa Mukerji is a Calcutta-born writer and lawyer.)